1

Love, I must tell thee, I'l no longer be
A Victime to thy beardless Deity:
Nor shall this heart of mine,
Now 'tis return'd,
Be offered at thy shrine,
Or at thine Altar burn'd.
Love, like Religion's made an aiery name,
To awe those souls whom want of wit makes tame.

2

There's no such thing as Quiver, Shafts or Bow,
Nor does Love wound, but men imagine so
Or if it does perplex
And grieve the mind,

1

Lady you'l wonder when you see
With those bright twins of eyes,
These ragged lines that crawle from me,
And note the contrarietie
That both in them and in their Authour lyes

2

I that came hither with a breast
Coated with Male about;
Proof 'gainst your beauty, and the rest,
And had no room for Love to nest,
Where reason lodgd within, and love kept out.

3

1

Mistake me not, I am not of that mind
To hate all woman kind;
Nor can you so my patience vex,
To make my Muse blaspheme your sex,
Nor with my Satyrs bite you;
Though there are some in your free-State,
Some things in you, who're Candidate,
That he who is, or loves himself, must hate;

When the days are long in May
I love the sweet song of distant birds,
And when I have left that place
I remember a distant love:
I am burdened and bowed down with desire,
So that neither song nor hawthorn flower
Pleases me more than icy winter.

I consider true the Lord
By whom I shall see this distant love;
But for one good thing that happens to me
I get two misfortunes, for she is so distant;
Ah! how I wish I were a pilgrim there,
So that my staff and my cloak
Might be seen by her beautiful eyes!

I have plenty of song masters
And song mistresses around me:
Meadows and orchards, trees and flowers,
Birds songs and lays and cries
For the sweet, gentle season,
And so I settle with a little enjoyment,
Such that no diversion can gladden me
As does the company of worthy love.

Let the shepherds have their pipes,
And the children their little games,
And let such loves be mine
In which I may enjoy and be enjoyed;
For I know her to be wholly good
To her lover in a forbidding place:
Because of this I feel too often afflicted,

Since our season begins to grow dark,
And the branches are bare of their leaves,
And I see the sun's rays so low
That the days are dark and shadowy,
And from the birds one hears no songs or lays,
For joy of love we should be glad.

One cannot serve this love so much
That its reward will not redouble a thousand times;
For distinction and joy and everything, and more,
Those who are capable of it shall have;
For it never went back on promises or broke them —
But it seems it will be difficult to conquer.

With the season which renews
The world, and makes the meadows green again,
I wish to begin a new song
About a love which I desire;
But she is so distant from me
That I cannot reach her,
Nor does she take pleasure in my words.

Nothing can ever comfort me;
Rather, let me die
When they have separated me from my lady —
Slanderers, God hate them!
Alas! I will have desired her so much,
That for her I lament, weep, and sigh,
And I act as if I were out of my mind.

She whom you hear me sing about

I TELL a tale o' burnin' love,
A love they seldom tine
Wha ance ha'e nursed it in their hearts:
It's no a love divine;
It's no a tale o' human love,
Whaur ane may lo'e anither;
It's no a mither's for a bairn,
A sister's for her brither:

Nae love o' science or o' art,
Or nature's bonny face;
It's no a love o' warl's gear,
Nor a love o' power and place;
It's no a love o' ocht that's gude,
Or ocht that's fine or fair;
It's no a love o' priest or kirk—
It's unco seldom there.

This burnin' love dries up the sap

We gathered round the festive board,
The crackling faggot blazed,
But few would taste the wine that poured.
Or join the song we raised.
For there was now a glass unfilled —
A favored place to spare;
All eyes were dull, all hearts were chilled —
The loved one was not there.

No happy laugh was heard to ring,
No form would lead the dance;
A smothered sorrow seemed to fling
A gloom in every glance.
The grave had closed upon a brow,
The honest, bright, and fair;
We missed our mate, we mourned the blow —

Dear Kate, I do not swear and rave,
Or sigh sweet things as many can;
But though my lip ne'er plays the slave
My heart will not disgrace the man .
I prize thee — ay, my bonnie Kate,
So firmly fond this breast can be,
That I would brook the sternest fate
If it but left me health and thee.

I do not promise that our life
Shall know no shade on heart or brow;
For human lot and mortal strife